Receive the latest local updates in your inbox

The perennially political Vallone family had a big announcement Tuesday.

"I spoke to my father over the weekend and we just decided that it was time for the 'junior' to go," joked the New York City Council member now formerly known as Peter Vallone, Jr.

"We were playing volleyball at the time, and my father had just returned one of my best spikes," he told NBCNewYork. "That's when I said,'Okay, that's it, from now on, you have to use senior and I'm not using junior anymore.' "

His eponymous father, who evidently will be adding the suffix "senior," was the first speaker of the City Council. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1998.

Vallone, the son, succeeded his father to represent the people of Astoria nearly nine years ago.

After graduating from Fordham Law School, he rose in his own right, first to become an assistant district attorney and now to chair the Council's public safety committee.

"I'll be the one who's just 'Vallone' now, and it sounds good," said the ever chatty younger Vallone as he did a joint media interview with colleague Vincent Gentile.

"Wait a minute, breaking news right there," said Council Member Gentile, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. "I'm a little distracted by this."

Not that the name dropping will help the newly monikered Peter Vallone extend his stay in the council chambers. Junior or not, he'll be term-limited out in 2013.

That might be a good time to seek advice from his predecessor. The elder Mr. Vallone is teaching political science these days at Baruch College, and remains a source of strategic wisdom in his senior years.